Series Recommendation: Hell’s Library
Letting books take you where they might – that was one part of the Library magic.
The Archive of the Forgotten
Are you the kind of person who reads an entire series right after another, or do you prefer to take breaks in between? I’m honestly a bit of both. I don’t know what the deciding factor is haha. This is just to say, I’ve just finished reading this wonderful trilogy, and I read it in the span of a week. So of course I’m here to recommend the series to you! I mean, if I read it this fast you can assume I loved it haha. Probably I wouldn’t have finished it otherwise lol.
The Basics
This trilogy, written by A.J. Hackwith, is called the Hell’s Library trilogy, and consists of the following books:
A library is people. Just as much as it is books and archives. You want to know the heart of a library, don’t look at its most famous books; look at the people it serves. Who it comforts, who it protects. The heart of a library may be its books, but its soul is its people. Humans and stories, impossible to separate the two.
The God of Lost Words
The third and final book came out last year. You know what that means!! No need to worry about those pesky cliffhangers. Here is the synopsis of the first book from Goodreads so you can see what the heck (hell) is going on!
“Many years ago, Claire was named Head Librarian of the Unwritten Wing– a neutral space in Hell where all the stories unfinished by their authors reside. Her job consists mainly of repairing and organizing books, but also of keeping an eye on restless stories that risk materializing as characters and escaping the library. When a Hero escapes from his book and goes in search of his author, Claire must track and capture him with the help of former muse and current assistant Brevity and nervous demon courier Leto.
But what should have been a simple retrieval goes horrifyingly wrong when the terrifyingly angelic Ramiel attacks them, convinced that they hold the Devil’s Bible. The text of the Devil’s Bible is a powerful weapon in the power struggle between Heaven and Hell, so it falls to the librarians to find a book with the power to reshape the boundaries between Heaven, Hell….and Earth.“
The series goes some really interesting places beyond this first adventure, and I hope you pick up the books to find out!
Why I Loved The Series
We think stories are contained things, but they’re not. Ask the muses. Humans, stories, tragedies, and wishes – everything leaves ripples in the world.
The Library of the Unwritten
Reviews are really hard aren’t they? Especially when you love a book. It’s like, all you wanna say is YES HI READ THIS. But let’s see, let’s get some bullet points down of some great things about this series:
- an interesting take on angels and demons!
- books that literally come to life?? hello how cool is that
- other afterlife realms (like, other than Heaven and Hell)
- beautiful writing – as you can see from the quotes I’ve included
- very good flow, the action is balanced so nicely with the quiet moments
- and there is SUCH GOOD CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
- FOR ALL OF THE CAST OF MAIN CHARACTERS
- and the character development happens in the midst of the action as well as in the quiet moments!! it’s so good
- on! page! pansexual! rep!
- great banter and happy moments
- yes, my favorite, found family – family that fights tooth and nail for each other
Just to expand, I think one thing in particular I loved was just the worldbuilding overall. I mean, the idea of characters coming to life out of their books? And not only that, but they are from unwritten books, i.e. books that authors haven’t written yet and may never write. What a fascinating concept. Also, I loved the exploration of the different realms. We get a taste of that in the first book, but wow some of the places we go in the second!! And third!! I can’t say too much because spoilers but I love Hackwith’s imagination, and loved reading about all of the different places.
More Beautiful Quotes
To end, I’m just gonna let a few more quotes from the books speak for themselves, and hopefully convince you to read them.
How much easier it would be if everyone knew their role: the hero, the sidekick, the villain. Our books would be neater and our souls less frayed. But whether you have blood or ink, no one’s story is that simple.
The Library of the Unwritten
To be a librarian is to be in rebellion against time, against the world.
The Archive of the Forgotten
What happens to you is not the story. The plot is not the story, the conflict is not the story, the world is not the story. The story is you. You, the character; you, the reader; and the liminal watercolor of magic that happens between those two.
The God of Lost Words
Have you read this series? What’s a recent series you finished that you loved and would recommend?
I love the sound of this trilogy. Definitely one to add to the ever increasing TBR.
hahah I know the struggle. Glad you’re going to add it though!!
This sounds super cool! As an archivist it’s tough finding books like this that describe archives in odd ways but I still love to read about libraries and archives
Ahhh yeah, that makes sense. I think one gives a good twist on it, for what its worth!
ahh I adored the heck out of this series, so glad to see it getting the love it deserves! ☺️
hell yes I gotta spread the love!!